Cricket is on the brink of a major technological breakthrough after it emerged that three counties have been practising with balls containing a chip that provides access to new levels of data – potentially revolutionising not only the way players train but how they are selected.
Glamorgan, Kent and Lancashire have all been using the special balls, inside which a chip – 28mm in diameter and encased in a protective core – is surrounded by sensors allowing the ball’s path to be captured 200 times a second.
The resulting data includes everything from the speed of both ball and bat to the angle of the ball’s trajectory when hit. According to the company that created the technology, Arc Simulations – based a couple of six hits away from The Oval in South London – the range of analysis is unprecedented, and will allow the game to unlock its full statistical potential. Cricket, they believe, is the ‘original data sport which got stuck’.
Subscribers to the technology can also use AI to set virtual fields, ‘gamifying’ net sessions by allowing batters the chance to see the predicted outcome of every shot.
‘We have brought a world-first product to market that autonomously tracks both bowling and batting in net training, playing out every delivery as a full-game simulation with AI fielders in seconds,’ says chief executive Michael Armenakis, who co-founded Arc with chief technology officer Henry Smith, a fellow cricket enthusiast and friend from their school days in Bromley.
‘Integrating chips inside both Kookaburra and Dukes balls offers new metrics previously unavailable in the sport.’
The chip that Arc Simulations have designed to go into Kookaburra and Dukes balls, allowing their path to be captured 200 times a second
The technology even enables teams to set up practice field settings, to know exactly where a shot in the nets would end up
The technology allows for teams to track a whole new level of data from their net sessions
Armenakis and Smith believe their technology, which has also been used by England Lions, is cricket’s ‘Moneyball moment’, allowing it to catch up with other sports – such as baseball, golf, F1 and even rugby – in which they say ‘simulation has become standardised’.
Kookaburra have previously experimented with a ‘SmartBall’, with a chip inside the ball measuring speed through the air, but it proved rudimentary and never took off. Now, Arc are attempting to take things to another level.
The chips, which the company hopes will at some point be used in match play to provide viewers with greater insight, are not intended to replace traditional gut instinct or talent-spotting, but to supplement it.
‘The human element and data aren’t mutually exclusive,’ Smith tells Daily Mail Sport. ‘Both share the aim of improving the game and, if used well, they can deliver a step change across the sport.’
Lancashire women have already turned theory into practice, using the data – including bat speed and launch angle – in six-hitting sessions, traditionally a weaker area of the women’s game.
Until now, it has been difficult during off-season net sessions to tell whether a blow has gone for six or been caught on the boundary, but Arc’s tools provide the answer, helping the batter settle on the optimal launch angle off the bat – 35 to 42 degrees. Its value for T20 franchises is self-evident.
Meanwhile, the use of AI, with a field set on an iPad, can turn net sessions into full match simulation, and offers counties who pay for a monthly subscription the chance to recoup expenditure by renting out the tools for commercial use.
Kent were first to show an interest around 18 months ago, with director of cricket Simon Cook and head of talent pathway Min Patel both keen. Cook says the technology is ‘helping us take a far more data-led approach to talent identification, while also developing cricket intelligence, particularly in our younger players, by playing out real-time scenarios in the practice nets’.
The Dukes balls in the Arc charging case. It is hoped they can help to improve scouting methods and supplement traditional techniques
Kent and England leg-spinner Matt Parkinson using the ball in the nets
The data can be immediately fed back to the batter in real time, so they can adjust their hitting style and approach
Lancashire became involved in October, and Glamorgan, where Arc track data from three of the club’s seven indoor net lanes, at the start of the year. Arc have had discussions with nearly all the 18 first-class counties, and believe they can add value in areas of the game where data has been limited, such as men’s and women’s training environments, and academy and 2nd XI setups.
The technology remains a work in progress, with plans to provide ‘full ball orientation mapping’ – in other words, not just RPM (revolutions per minute) but the angle of the seam relative to the pitch.
Smith says: ‘This allows players to experiment with their technique in real time, while finally allowing data scientists the tools to decode why a cricket ball behaves as it does under varying conditions.’
Existing technologies don’t offer any data beyond the moment the ball leaves the bat – another area where baseball analytics are ahead of cricket. ‘Our ultimate goal is to “close the loop”, capturing every data point from the start of the bowler’s run-up to the result of the shot,’ says Smith.
If Arc’s ambitions bear fruit, cricket analytics may never be the same again.
